Government of Pakistan has finally approved the ePassport project, an initiative that will bring a new digital traveling document for Pakistani citizens. It will be available and operational by 2017.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar ALi Khan approved the project today, in light of the myriad of security woes plaguing Pakistan and its citizens.
He was chairing a high-level meeting at the Interior Ministry today which was also attended by Secretary Interior, Special Secretary Interior, DG-FIA, DG-Immigration & Passports, Chairman NADRA and senior officials of Interior Ministry.
Benefits of ePassport
Current passports are prone to counterfeit and circumvent, leading to identity theft and many other related crimes. It is also used to facilitate human smuggling, since these normal passports are not secure. Terrorists and agents also routine abuse the lax security measures found in today’s passports. And then there are the fraudsters, looking to make a quick buck.
An ePassport is much more secure. It comes with an electronic chip that contains your biometric data, helping easily identify the travelers and reducing the risk of unscrupulous elements hijacking your identity.
Pakistani passport is one of the worst in the world and this measure can help improve Pakistan’s ranking for the better. To illustrate a point, just recently, some 6 human traffickers were arrested with fake passports and CNICs from Punjab. Such incidents are expected to go down with the introduction of a more secure ePassport.
Another apparent advantage of getting an ePassport is that information can be updated effortlessly in the future by Pakistani immigration and passport authorities as needed.
Finally, an ePassport is very difficult to hack or tamper with, with many advanced security measures built-in.
The new e-Passports will be developed using in-house modern digital printing machine. The printing machine is expected to be installed with the latest technology, ensuring complete quality control over the production of electronic passports for Pakistani citizens.
Featured Image Credit: MoreNews.PK
We are in process of establishing offices in major cities… and it would be a game changer project…
game changer how? It’s an improvement but even Nadra with great tech has issues due to people at the centers doing illegal things! Only when we started seriously punishing people caught doing that will stuff improve!
this is very important move my dear because world is moving towards Smart technology and having a Smart passport with bio metric authentication and other security features means there are lesser chances of forging/ tempering …
and I do agree with people doing wrong … but always encourage people to spot and discourage such people. We also do our best to control illegal activities … and things have changed a lot since last few years and we are hopeful for further improvements…!
Dear Bilal, when you people are going to start online readable passport ?
What about when a single CNIC is assigned to two people……. what should they do when both of them have passports on a single CNIC……… I have the example but not to show on this forum….. There is a need to secure our business processes not to rush introducing newer ones….. We need to enhance first the existing passport and secure it….. not to move forward for issuing an online passport or in the same environment an e-passport.
Pakistani passport is second worst in terms of Visa Restrictions – not in terms of security features! I doubt that security features on a passport has much to do with visa waivers! Though, it will help to curb down human trafficking and misuse.
Exactly!
Pakistan passport is second worst as our Foreign Ministry is not interested in building any relations with other countries. These govt servants have Diplomatic/ Official Passport and hence do not go through the plight that every Pakistan citizen does when applying for visas. I have been travelling quite often and it is getting tougher and tougher each days. It saddens me to know that even countries like Philippines and Sri Lanka require prior visa approval (unlike our neighbours who have VOA to most Asian countries). Some Muslim countries like Indonesia do not even offer tourist visa for Pakistan citizen and even if they do it is a strenuous process to get one.
They need to get the Foreign Ministry sorted out rather than focusing on security features.
What would be its cost? No mention of it anywhere
Isn’t this the same as the machine readable passports they’ve been issuing for years now? Don’t those carry biometric data?
Smart passport…
Do we need to convert current passport in E-Passport.
Not necessarily yet
Paid 90CHF in 2014 for a manual passport in switzerland then last year in 2015 government decided everyone should go for bio-metric passport and had to go England and they don’t accept manual passport. so again paid 90CHF last year and took a month to get my passport and missed the meeting and now again? WTF! i hope in a year i will get my Swiss passport and the next day i am gonna flush this useless shit in the toilet.
Old story copy pasted from express tribune newspaper. Most of the story on pro pak are now copy pasted from express tribune or other webs.
though i have some major issues with propakistani, but as for this issue you raised, as far i see this was posted on 13th may, while extress tribune was posted on 14th may…..who copy pasted??? or same author…
Its an outdated site now. And people who are out of Pak actually knows what technology means.
Pak is a way far away from it and don’t know how much time it will be. :-)
Ohh Please give us a break and stay there… You are in Switzerland only because you possessed this PAK passport which you are most eager to flush.
Jo apni kaa mitta ka nahi woh kissiii kaa nahi… SHAME ON YOU MATE
true, so true … !!!
@ Sid, PAKISTAN doesn’t need you, you better be there, enjoy your life there !!!!